OverDrive - Rishaug on Canada's electric victory, Crosby's elite performance and Marner's winning goal

Episode Date: February 13, 2025

TSN Reporter Ryan Rishaug joined OverDrive to discuss Canada's 4 Nations Face-Off win against Sweden, Sidney Crosby's elite performance leading the way, Mitch Marner's game-winning goal, Shea Theodore's injury impact on the blue line, Jordan Binnington's role in the crease and more.

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Switch to Bell PureFiber, Canada's fastest internet, awarded by UCCLA. Starting from $60 a month. Visit bell.ca for more details and to check availability. Let's welcome in Ryan Rashad. Is that an accurate description of what happened this morning, Ryan? Yeah, no. So what Pierre and I do, every hit that we do, we immediately head back to the hotel, we call it up on the internet, we sit and take notes, we do self-critiques, then we critique each other, we exchange notes notes and then we do the same thing

again the next day before we take our first hit so it's a it's an endless pursuit of excellence but it's the commitment level that we have oh you should look into it but well i a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a I'm driving there Duffy apparently is on a private jet early tomorrow morning and he's the only one which is insane. I don't know why I couldn't have hopped on that but Rish everyone's got their own style pal I know you like to jot down notes and stuff I like to just let it rip. Oh dog you should ask you should ask Ryan about about your question to me when mario was getting introduced rish you are a response all you have to do is marry

okay now for if mario came out and they started talking about the spangler cup accomplishments and study came out holding the banner with mario would you have a lot of the press box uh... the story would have been. He would have thought that all the standing ovation was for him. He'd have been talking about it for months and months. He would have.

His head is already big enough, fellas. We don't need to fill it with more ideas like that. So take us through last night. I mean, Odog mentioned Lemieux, the incredible ovation for Team Canada. It looked absolutely electric on TV. What was it like to be there in person? Yeah, it was pretty cool. Now, I've covered playoffs series here in Montreal. It was not to that level.

I'm going to be honest with you, it wasn't. And maybe they're saving that for Saturday night. But it was still awesome. It's one of the, if not the best buildings in the league to come and, and see events like this. The fans were fantastic. The cheer they gave Mario, the booze they rained down on us. Austin Matthews, like, you know, he was just so in the spotlight. It wasn't like it was, you know, an announcement, an announcement of a starting lineup where it lasts like three or four seconds. It was like they announced his name. He's got to walk all the way out there, shake hands, stand there, spotlight on and the place just absolutely crushing them. But you know, Hey man, you take that as a sign of respect.

They were willing to cheer for Mitch Marner a little later on in the night. And that just goes to show you, but not really good, not quite playoff style. I would say yet, but, uh, but high end and really fun. And just an awesome night. And the hot dogs, top shelf. I kept it to one, the Schenn show, but top shelf. So Rich, what was your biggest takeaway from last night's game? We talked about it.

Obviously, they get it done in overtime. Early on, it looks like it's going to be a rout, kind of a 7-1 game, I felt like. And then Sweden crawls back into it and really makes a game of it I thought they were the better team kind of the second half of the game What was your biggest takeaway or maybe a couple of them? Yeah, okay, so I'll start with this how many times have you guys on your show over the last four or five six months? Had the debate how hard are these guys gonna try. Like what's it gonna be like? Is it gonna be a glorified exhibition game

somewhere between a playoff game and a regular season game? A million times we've done that. Right, a million times. And I don't know where you guys landed on it, but we've talked about it a ton too. And the truth is, I thought it would be pretty good. I didn't think that they'd come here and slack off, but I thought maybe a little bit of a wink, wink, nudge, nudge.

Let's not hurt each other, but play as hard as we can. So there was a moment early in that game guys and I'm sure you felt the exact same thing. So the puck drops play goes for like whatever 10-15 seconds Nathan McKinnon has an opportunity to four check hard in the corner. First game, first period, first shift to the tournament. And I audibly said to it, like I said it out loud, the corner, big hit in the corner. And as soon as he did that, I went, we have a tournament like for Nathan McKinnon first shift to just send the message to everybody. Yeah, we're here to play. And then he drew a penalty shortly after that. We all saw what happened with the power play Travis connect me running around out there like the the level of

Physicality in that game guys answered all of our questions probably surprised most of us And I love the way Nate McKinnon set the tone for that So it just felt like oh, yeah, and it made me even feel more like I can't wait for Saturday night Oh yeah, and it made me even feel more like I can't wait for Saturday night Reish Sidney Crosby, obviously the crowd chanting his name the three assists It was such an incredible night for him But if you look at like the team game and sat down and had a candid conversation with John Cooper Do you think that he would be a hundred percent all-in on like the total team game? Because as much as I got the win and it was exciting I think the coaching staff would say there's definitely room for

improvement actually quite a bit yeah but I think your answer will come tomorrow at practice so I think what you guys are talking a little bit about today I don't think they love their game but I don't think we're gonna see a ton of changes I think they feel like they guessed right on a lot of this stuff. You know, I don't think you're changing the Crosby line. I know you guys are debating the McDavid Marner line a little bit, but here's the thing on that. So they started fast, some great individual moments.

McDavid was some great plays, some brilliant defensive play from Sam Reinhart through that game, right? The break up in front of the net, get an amazing shot block too that was clutch. Here's the thing, it was tough through the middleart through that game, right? The break up in front of the net, get an amazing shot block too that was clutch. Here's the thing, it was tough through the middle part of that game. And they were dumping the puck in like they were gonna be a dump and chase,

go get it line and they just, nothing happened, right? Like Mitch Marner, a few puck retrievals in the corner guys, like that's Zach Hyman's job. That's what Zach Hyman does. Puck goes into the corner, he goes and gets it. And Mitch Marner's not necessarily the guy for that. So I was sitting up there thinking, oh boy, I don't know if this is the right mix.

And then what John Cooper did in the third period, he leaned into that line. Even though it wasn't going fantastic, he leaned into it. He played him a ton down the stretch, played him a ton in the last couple of minutes, put him into defensive situations, trusted them, double shifted them, and got great results from them.

So I really liked the patience that Cooper showed and then the fact that he leaned into those guys and of course you need to have them out there in overtime. But to answer your question, definitely things they didn't love, but I don't think we're going to see a lot of changes. One change we will see is on the back end as Shea Theodore breaks his wrist last night which is just tragic right coming from Vegas. Awful. 20 minutes into the game less than 20 minutes into the game this guy breaks his wrist he's done for the tournament he's gonna miss some time in the NHL schedule as well. Travis Sainheim will slot in. Ryan can you explain to us

the injury replacement or lack thereof protocol with this tournament? Yeah, lack thereof would be the thing. I know our insiders are kind of chasing their tails trying to get answers today, and I think you guys said you had the brown on a little bit later, so he'll be able to dial in the details even more. But bottom line, the original set of rules were

if you had 18 skaters and two goalies, there was no replacements allowed. Now, it didn't matter the mix. Forward's defensemen didn't really matter. had 18 skaters and two goalies there was no no replacements allowed. Now it didn't matter the mix forwards defensemen didn't really matter. Once you got below that 18 healthy skaters that's where they started talking about being able to bring guys in. I think they've kind of tweaked out a little bit here because you don't want forwards playing defense in the tournament right and team Canada is an injury away from from that potentially happening. They're going

to allow them I think basically if there's another injury, then you can sort of circle a guy, have him ready to go, but the idea that you're gonna just bring somebody in right now that's gonna be with your team and practice with your team and go to all the meetings and be part of the team, that's what they're not, they're pushing back on, they're not allowed to do that right now. You can have a guy aware, you can have a guy ready,

you can have a guy in mind, but you can't bring them in and make them a full-time part of the team every day here. And I think there's some back and forth happening right now. Because bottom line, like what rulebook are they falling back on? Like what, what, what, this is a one-off. So I think they're trying to have common sense rule the day, but I think there's some back and forth happening about what's reasonable. Yeah, it would make no sense for them not to be able to replace an injured player. I mean, that would be totally absurd. I'm glad that they came. Well, as of right now, they can't. Well, no, but if there was another injury.

They're working in another D man. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so, Sennheim will slot in, fortunately. It would be insane to see Travis Koneckeney or Sam Bennett playing on the back end noodles. I know. I mean, it's going to be a tough situation, I mean, either way, because Theodore is a huge loss. What did you make of Bennington's game? And, you know, to me, I thought he made a couple big saves in OT, but, you know, I think

there might have been a few shaky moments. Had they lost that game, we might have been talking about Aiden Hill. I don't know. What do you make of it? Yeah. So here was my thought. You know, heading into the third period, you're like, okay, it's been okay.

And then all of a sudden, Sweden completes that comeback and you don't love some of the goals and we're sitting there going, oh boy, we'll be talking about some serious goalie issues here moving forward, it's going to be part of the narrative. But what I would say is that he might have done enough in overtime to have kind of, you know, late in the third and in overtime

to have redeemed himself a little bit there. And I'm not sure what you guys think, but it felt to me like, look, everybody had some shaky moments in that game, first game. And when a goalie has a shaky moment, it ends up behind him, right? So if you measure him by the same standard you've measured everybody else by, you'd say, yeah, was there a shaky moment, it ends up behind him, right? So if you measure him by the same standard you measured everybody else by, you'd say yeah, was there a shaky moment or two?

Yeah. How was he when it really mattered? And I thought he played some of his best hockey when it really mattered in overtime. That probably made them feel a lot better about the original decision that they'd made guys to go with him. Because yeah, he was good in a big money moment. And I can't help but wonder if that maybe didn't buy him a reprieve from what the first 45-50 minutes might have spelled

out for him. What are you expecting tonight, Ry? Canadian hockey fans, especially in such a fantastic place, Montreal, they were jazzed up last night but USA-Finland tonight like are we talking potentially not full barn or? Like yeah, maybe a step obviously it's gonna be a step back because of no Canada just overall general expectations of tonight Yeah, I mean oh we've been in enough international tournaments in world juniors like we know what it's like We're at a tournament in Canada when Canada's not playing, right? It just, it doesn't have the same jam. Understandably, I ran into a guy downstairs.

He's grabbing a coffee. Um, we got chatting. I said, you going to the game tonight? He goes, yeah, well, we were going to go home, but last minute we canceled and we're staying because of the weather. And so we were able to go to the game tonight. I said, how was getting tickets? And he goes, oh, like 70 bucks there everywhere.

No problem. So like it, you know, then there's been talked about the prices, right? So he same day, obviously was able to snag a pair of tickets pretty easily. It's just not, it's not the same thing. Um, what I'm more interested in, I mean, never mind the fans and the crowd and all that kind of stuff. When the puck dropped last night, there was no question what kind of game that was going to be a more kind of tournament this is going to be and i'm interested to see if they can get anywhere close to that level tonight because that was we had multiple players world-class players saying that was the fastest game i've ever played it

are they going to find that same level tonight or will there be a bit of disparity from intensity in the speed we saw last night to tonight. What's your plan this evening? Are you going to be at the game perhaps taking in some other festivities? No, I'm trying man. These are late starts too. It's messy like 8 o'clock, 8.15, 8.20, puck drop, whatever that was. We were like, we finished work and got back at 1.30 so I won't include you in this necessarily but for the rest of the world it's tough to have find too much fun after 1 a.m. out here in Montreal it was back to the hotel and shut her down for the night buddy I haven't seen I haven't like been close to 1 a.m. in five years pal I'll be like

I'll be crawling back to the hotel immediately after the game on Saturday for bed yeah it's going hopefully where the city just gets going. Hopefully we can find a nice dinner tomorrow night, oh you and I overdue pal. Yeah, can't wait buddy, let's have the limo ready to take us out to Brassard tomorrow at approximately 9am. So I owe it to one of those guys, if you guys have never been on the road working one of these gigs though, he just like shows up in the lobby at the time you tell them with no concept of like how we're getting where we're going or he just needs to be managed

like usher him into the vehicle cover is that if it's raining and just get him where he needs to go so that he can the cameras can go on and he can become all that's all that's all people want we'll see you tomorrow pal thanks for doing that i don't get to travel brian rishaw

all of you and i back in the day